Hierarchy of Needs

When physiological needs are largely taken care of, the second layer, or the safety and security needs layer, comes into play. You will become more and more interested in finding safe circumstances, stability, and protection. You might develop a need for structure, for order, or some limits. In the ordinary American adult, this set of needs marked themselves in the form of our urges to have a home in a safe neighborhood, a little job security, a good retirement plan, a bit of insurance, and so on.
When physiological and safety needs are mostly taken care of a new layer starts to show, this is the love and belonging needs layer. You begin to feel the need for friends, a sweetheart, children, affectionate relationships in general, and even a sense of community. The negative side to this is that you can become extremely subject to loneliness and social anxieties. In our everyday life we show these needs with our desires to get married have a family, be part of a community, a member of a church, a member of a social club, and it’s also a part of what we look for in a career.
The last level is a bit different; Maslow used a variety of terms to describe this level. The mainly used term is self-actualization. These are needs that do not involve balance. Once engaged, they don’t go away, they continue to be felt. In fact, they are likely to become stronger as we feed them or stimulate them. They involve the continuous desire to fulfill potentials, “to be all you can be”. They are a matter of becoming the most complete self-actualizing. If you truly want to be self-actualizing, you need to have all your lower needs at least mostly complete. When lower needs aren’t met, you can’t fully devote your time and energy to fulfilling your potentials.
It isn’t surprising, the world being as difficult as it is, that only a small percentage of the world’s population is truly self-actualizing. Maslow doesn’t think that self-actualizers aren’t perfect, of course. There were...